What It Actually Takes to Build a World-Class Venue Destination

Olympia London is in the middle of one of the most ambitious venue transformations in the country. New hotels, restaurants, a music venue, and an upcoming theatre are all being woven into the wider estate, turning what was once a set of exhibition halls into a genuine cultural destination. We spoke to Alex Lewis, Chief Operating Officer at Olympia Events, about what that transformation really involves, and why it takes far more than new buildings to pull it off.

Beyond the buildings

For Alex, Olympia's transformation started from a strong base: its iconic halls. But turning that into a cultural destination has meant building outward, integrating new hotels, restaurants, bars, a music venue, and a soon-to-arrive theatre into one connected estate, so visitors experience far more than just the halls themselves.

That shift goes beyond what's visible to guests. It also means rethinking how the business operates internally, adapting systems built for an older model of venue management to suit a much more modern, multi-use estate. Food and beverage is a good example. Historically a service industry function, it's now being reimagined entirely, with a new culinary team driving fine dining, awards nights, and conference catering across the estate, a shift that will only accelerate once the ICC and the Addison come online later this year.

Getting the basics right first

Ask Alex what "world-class" actually means operationally, and the answer starts somewhere unglamorous: the basics.

Security, cleaning, and facilities need to be running perfectly in the background, doing their job without ever being noticed. That's the foundation everything else is built on. Once those fundamentals are solid, the operational team can shift focus toward the customer and exhibitor experience directly, rather than firefighting behind the scenes.

The third stage is where things get genuinely distinctive for Olympia: thinking and operating as one integrated estate, rather than a collection of separate venues and businesses. Increasingly, conversations with clients aren't about booking "Olympia events" or "Olympia estates" in isolation, but about estate-wide takeovers that treat the whole site as a single, unified destination.

The complexity people underestimate

Running any large venue is a genuinely complex operation, and Olympia is a good example of just how complex that can get: multiple businesses, multiple locations, all sitting within one estate.

What people tend to underestimate, Alex says, is just how much coordination that requires. Every part of the chain needs to work seamlessly and almost invisibly, so guests never see the hours of planning and process behind the scenes. That means being process-driven, accountable, and maintaining genuinely open communication across every stakeholder involved, not just within the venue, but in relation to the wider world it operates in.

Becoming a destination, not just a venue

The most exciting part of what's happening at Olympia right now, according to Alex, is seeing that estate-wide integration actually take hold day to day, rather than just events being treated as a separate function within a bigger site.

That reframing changes the role events play. With events driving a large proportion of footfall onto the estate, the goal now is to keep people there for longer, encouraging them to eat, drink, network, and explore, rather than arrive, attend, and leave. Delivering that kind of experience means looking beyond the events industry itself, toward what genuinely makes a visit feel worthwhile.

Why platforms like VenueScanner matter

For a business in growth mode, coming out of a major development phase, platforms like VenueScanner play an essential role in opening up new markets and new business.

But for Alex, it's about more than volume of enquiries. VenueScanner helps Olympia find the right customers, not simply the first ones through the door, allowing the team to yield the business in the direction they actually want to grow in, rather than taking whatever comes.

Where the industry is heading

Alex has watched the venue industry shift fundamentally over the course of his career. Venue management used to be a transactional business: hand over the keys, and step back. Now, the industry is being reshaped around destination-led experiences.

Olympia's own developments reflect that shift directly. They're not a coincidence, Alex says, but a direct response to what today's audiences want: to stay longer, to have a genuine experience on-site, and to eat, drink, network, and socialise as part of the event itself. For venues hoping to stand out, that shift from venue to destination isn't optional anymore. It's essential.

Alex Lewis is Chief Operating Officer at Olympia Events, leading the transformation of Olympia London into a fully integrated cultural destination. Connect with him on LinkedIn.